View our Autumn 2012 Foreign Rights Guide - MBA Literary Agents

MBA Autumn 2012 Rights Guide
Gemma Burgess
BEGINNER’S LUCK (First in UNION STREET series)
Fantastically funny, fresh and utterly relatable, Beginner's Luck by Gemma
Burgess is the first novel in her brand new series UNION STREET about five
twenty-something friends - Pia, Angie, Julia, Coco and Madeleine - sharing a
brownstone in hip downtown Brooklyn, and discovering the ups, downs, ins
and outs of adult life.
The first book is Pia's story. She's sophisticated, spoilt, and stylish... and unemployed, unemployable,
and broke. So what is a recent grad with an art history degree and an unfortunate history of
Facebook topless photos to do? Start a food truck business, of course! Pia takes on the surprisingly
cutthroat Brooklyn world of hybrid lettuce growers and starts SkinnyWheels - all while dealing with
hipster bees, one-night-stands, heartbreak, parental fury, wild parties, revenge, jail, loan sharks,
playboys, karaoke, true love, and one adorable pink food truck. And that's without counting her
roommates' problems, too...
Gemma Burgess has captured the confusion, hilarity and excitement of the post-graduate years
against a backdrop of the pressures and chaos of New York City life, with heartfelt empathy, fast
humour and sharp honesty. Union Street is your next favourite book series.
US Publisher: St Martin’s Press, Summer 2013
Rights Sold: Germany - Blanvalet
Alys Clare
THE LAND OF THE SILVER DRAGON
Number 5 in the Aelf Fen series, set in the Norman period of British History.
The peace of Lassair's fenland village is shaken by news of a violent crime. When more victims suffer
assaults, and a second death is reported, the awful realisation strikes her family: the attacks are
personal. Rumours spread of a stranger: bearded, elusive, a giant of a man. He seems to be
searching for something, and he is very dangerous...
Desperate to keep his beloved daughter from harm, Lassair's father escorts her back to the safety of
her mentor Gurdyman's house in Cambridge. But safety proves to be an illusion, for, as soon as she

lowers her guard, danger finds her. Helpless, she is swept away from all that she knows and loves,
into a world whose existence she never even suspected. Awaiting her are excitement, discovery, an
unlooked-for joy... and peril so deadly that she fears for her very life.
Alys Clare has lived in Kent since childhood; for the last few years close to the remnants of the great
Wealden Forest. She also spends much of the year in an ancient stone cottage in Brittany. She has
been a published novelist since 1990 and is a prize-winning short-story writer.
UK Publisher: Severn House, July 2013
Jean Fullerton
CALLING NURSE MILLIE
For everyone who enjoyed CALL THE MIDWIFE …
It's 1945 and, as the troops begin to return home, the inhabitants of London attempt to put their
lives back together. For 25- year- old Millie, a qualified nurse and midwife, the jubilation at the end
of the War is short-lived as she tends to the needs of the East End community around her. But while
Millie witnesses tragedy and brutality in her job, she also finds strength and kindness. And when
misfortune befalls her own family, it is the enduring spirit of the community that shows Millie that
even the toughest of circumstances can be overcome.
Through Millie's eyes, we see the harsh realities and unexpected joys in the lives of the patients she
treats, as well as the camaraderie that is forged with the fellow nurses she lives with. Filled with
unforgettable characters and moving personal stories, CALLING NURSE MILLIE vividly brings to life
the colourful world of a post-War East London.
Jean Fullerton joined MBA Agents as a client after she won the 2006 Harry Bowling Prize for her
novel No Cure For Love. She is married to a Church of England vicar and they live in Stratford in East
London. She achieved further success in being shortlisted twice for the RNA Award: in 2010 for A
Glimpse of Happiness and in 2012 for Hold onto Hope.
UK Publisher: Orion, April 2013
Cathy Woodman
VETS IN LOVE
Talyton St George’s new doctor Nicci Chieveley divides her time between
caring for her patients and riding her beautiful grey mare. She has little
opportunity for romance until vet and partner at Westleigh equine hospital,
Matt Warren, walks into her surgery.
When Nicci’s troubled sister and her children move themselves into her
home, Matt’s ex-girlfriend brings unwelcome news, and disaster strikes for

Nicci and her horse, Nicci is forced to assess her priorities. As the end of the year approaches, she
has to make a decision that will change her life.
Will there be a happy Christmas for Talyton’s galloping doctor?
Catherine Woodman won the Harry Bowling Prize in 2002 for her first novel, Under the Bonnet,
which was snapped up by Headline. She went on to write four contemporary romantic sagas before
beginning her series for Arrow with the bestselling Trust Me I’m a Vet. She lives in Winchester with
her young family.
UK Publisher: Arrow, November 2012
Rights Sold: USA – Hyperion, Czech - Vikend
Option Publishers: Germany – Blanvalet, Norway – Aller Forlag
V M Whitworth
TRAITORS’ PIT
Wulfgar’s older brother has been accused of treason by King Alfred’s successor Edward, and Wulfgar
needs all his knowledge of the law to try and save him. But the Lady of Mercia sends Wulfgar north
as a pledge of good faith, so that the treaty she has hammered out with the York Danes will hold.
The Lady bribes him with the prospect of a bishopric, but Wulfgar can’t forget the alluring and
unobtainable Gunnvor, even though she is a pagan. She is in York, too, but the discovery that they
might be on different sides now spoils their reunion. He also meets King Edward’s rival and cousin
again: Athelwald Seiriol, who shows himself to be violent, faithless and unscrupulous. Wulfgar
desperately wants to know whether his brother had indeed plotted to kill King Edward of Wessex
and put Seiriol on the throne instead. Against his better judgement, he finds himself being drawn
into the same complex web of fear, blackmail and lust for power that brought his brother down.
VM Whitworth read English at Oxford, where she was one of a tiny minority who chose to specialise
in Anglo-Saxon, followed by an MA and D. Phil from the Centre for Medieval Studies in York. She
now lives on the island of Orkney.
UK Publisher: Ebury, February 2013
Option Publishers: Germany – Rowolt
Paul Wilson
MOUSE AND THE COSSACKS
Mouse is a determined ten-year-old girl, intelligent, curious, funny, but also
strangely, perhaps defiantly, silent.

When she moves with her mother to an isolated house in the Pennines, Mouse becomes fascinated
by the possessions left by the owner William, now in a nursing home.
Like a detective she researches his recent movements, his links with the damaged son of a neighbour
and, most disturbingly, his connections to a distant wartime secret.
Paul Wilson lives in Lancashire. He has worked in a range of social-care settings and is Vice Chair of
the British Association for Supported Employment. 1n 1997 he won the Portico Prize for Literature
for Do White Whales Sing at the Edge of the World? His most recent novel, The Visiting Angel is
shortlisted for the same prize this year.
UK Publisher: Tindal Street, Spring 2013
Michele Hanson
ABSOLUTELY BARKING
The world of dog ownership has always attracted a good number of enthusiasts – some would say
eccentrics – who are passionate about their pets. Owners had only dog obedience classes and dog
shows to cater for their interests, but there is now a huge industry offering a wealth of caninecentred
activities, such as extreme grooming, dog dancing schools, luxury dog spas and bespoke
designers offering a baffling choice of pet accessories. Britain’s dog population is now bigger than
ever, and Dog World is far more complicated than it seems from the outside. It is a world of extreme
competition, slavish devotion and delicate protocol. What do you do when your hound gets
inappropriately frisky with a fellow dog-walker’s pet? Who has right of way on the towpath between
a jogger and a greyhound, and what kind of cake do you bake for a puppy shower?
Popular columnist Michele Hanson conducts a hilarious and fascinating investigation into the dog
owners and their pets across all walks of life – from the pampered pooches of suburbia to the badboy
breeds of the urban zone – and meets owners across the spectrum of delightful, bizarre,
aspirational, ghastly and just plain crazy. Absolutely Barking is not only a book for dog-lovers; it is
also a uniquely witty insight into an aspect of British life that is more popular than it has ever been.
In her famous weekly Guardian column, Michele created a comic masterpiece of family life. Over
many years she chronicled the teenage years of her daughter, Treasure, and the final years of her
mother. Her most recent book, What The Grown Ups Were Doing, was a bestseller for Simon and
Schuster earlier this year. Michele still writes a weekly column for the Guardian.
UK Publisher: Simon & Schuster, February 2013
Johnny Sharp
MIND THE BOLLOCKS
“Popular music has always attracted the kind of immoral individuals who are
too crazy to hold down a proper job. And that's just as well. After all, if your
local grocer told you he'd just snorted his father's ashes, you might be
concerned about doing business with him. But when Keith Richards says it, you
think 'Nice one, Keef!' and pick up your iPod to find 'Honky Tonk Women'. From

worrying sexual politics to crackpot religions, Musicians' elevated position in popular culture allows
them to speak freely on subjects about which they know precious little. For the first time, Mind the
Bollocks collects together some of their most ridiculous comments.
Mind The Bollocks also digs beneath the culture of nonsense surrounding popular music and asks:
Are the X-Factor auditions all they appear to be? Is there really a musical frequency that can make
you soil yourself? And which world-renowned rock guitarist sliced his own penis off? All is revealed
herein, with bonus satanic messages included if you read it backwards.
Johnny Sharp is a freelance journalist who writes regularly for The Guardian, Q and Mojo, and was
previously one of the NME's best known feature writers, working under his school nickname Johnny
Cigarettes.
UK Publisher: Portico, August 2012
Nige Tassell
MR GIG
“Mr Gig is a sweet and tender paean to a very particular lost love, the live gig, and a wise and witty
account of how one man set about rekindling that youthful romance.”
Stuart Maconie, author of Cider with Roadies
Roadie. DJ. Promoter. Reviewer. Punter. Nige Tassell’s adult life has been defined by live music. It’s
the fabric of his being, his bloodline, his DNA. He is Mr Gig. Or at least he was.
A decade ago, Mr Gig hung up his backstage pass and headed off to raise children in rural isolation.
Now, with house renovated and kids domesticated, he turns back to face the music and barely
recognises his former love. The astronomical ticket prices. The sea of mobile phones obscuring the
view. The once-iconic venues selling naming rights to drinks companies…
On a mission to rekindle his passion for live music, Nige embarks on a round-Britain trip – from
super-sized arena shows to tiny folk festivals, from blacker-than-black death metal gatherings to
brightly coloured ’80s pop revivals – in an attempt to get his groove back. Along the way, he finds
himself the recipient of a Michael Eavis practical joke, eats his way through Elbow’s backstage
banquet, endures a near-death experience en route to a festival on a remote Hebridean island, and
even goes gladioli shopping with a Smiths tribute band.
Will Nige fall back in love with live music? Can he make peace with middle age? And will he ever
again be able to rightfully call himself Mr Gig?
Nige Tassell is a freelance music journalist whose work has appeared in the pages of The Word, Q,
The Guardian, The Sunday Times, New Statesman and Paste.
UK Publisher: Short Books, May 2013

Brazil
Tassy Barham Associates
231 Westbourne Park Road
London
W11 1EB
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7792 5899
E-mail: tassy@tassybarham.com
Eastern Europe, Russia, Greece
Milena Lukic (Eastern Europe, Greece)
Ana Milenkovic (Russia)
Prava I Prevodi
Yu-Business Centre
Blvd. Mihaila Pupina 10b/I
5 th Floor, Suite 4
11070 Belgrade
SERBIA &
MONTENEGRO
Tel: +381 11 3016141 &
311 9880
Fax: +381 11 3119879
E-mail: milena@pravaiprevodi.org
E-mail: ana@pravaiprevodi.org
Italy
Ms Vicki Satlow
Vicki Satlow Literary Agency
via Cenisio 16
20154 Milano
ITALY
Tel: + 39 02 48015553
Fax: + 39 02 91390742
E-mail: Vickisatlow@tin.it
SUB-AGENTS
Germany
Mr Thomas Schlück
Thomas Schlück Agency
Hinter der Worth 12
D-30827 Garbsen
GERMANY
Tel: + 49 5131 497560
Fax: + 49 5131 497589
E-mail: t.schlueck@schlueckagent.com
Israel
Ms Gal Pikarski
I Pikarski Ltd Literary Agency
200 Hayarkon Street
Box 4006
Tel Aviv
ISRAEL
Tel: +972 3 527 10159/5231880
Fax: +972 3 527 0160
E-mail: gal@pikarskiagency.co.il
The Netherlands
Mariska Kleinhoonte van Os
Sebes & Van Gelderen Literary Agency
Herengracht 162
1016 BP AMSTERDAM
Tel: +31 20 6160940
Email: kleinhoonte@sebes.nl

Japan
Ms Chigusa Ogino
Tuttle Mori Agency Inc
2-15 Kanda JimbochoChiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101,
JAPAN
Tel: +81 3 3230 4081
Fax: +81 3 3234 5249
E-mail: chigusa@tuttlemori.com
Spain
Maribel Luque
Agencia Carmen Balcells
Diagonal 580
08021 Barcelona
SPAIN
Tel: +34 93 2008565 or 89 33
Fax: +34 93 200 70 41
E-mail:
ma.luque@ag-balcells.com
Scandinavia
Ms Trine Licht
Licht & Burr Literary Agency
Klosterstraede 21A, 3
DENMARK
1157 Copenhagen K
Tel: +45 33330021
Fax:: +45 33330521
E-mail: tl@licht-burr.dk
Rights enquiries:
Stella Kane
MBA Literary Agents
62 Grafton Way, London W1T 5DW
Tel:+44 207387 2076
Fax:+44 207387 2042
E-mail: stella@mbalit.co.uk